British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro won the Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day (1989). Three of his other works—An Artist of the Floating World (1986), When We Were Orphans (2000), and Never Let Me Go ( 4 of 5 StarsSelectionJuly/Aug 2005)—were short-listed for that prize. Nocturnes is his first collection of short fiction.

The Story: In the five stories collected here, musicians and music lovers endure the exasperating, often bleak, and sometimes absurd quest for fame and fortune. "Crooner" features a roving guitarist in Venice who jumps at the chance to accompany a legendary American singer in an unusual private performance. A man goes to great lengths to hide a mistake in "Come Rain or Come Shine," and a talented young cellist takes lessons from an unconventional teacher in "Cellists." "Nocturnes" tells the story of two performers who undergo plastic surgery for very different reasons. Each character in this collection attempts to bridge the chasm between the beauty and purity of music and the sordid reality of life.Knopf. 240 pages. $25. ISBN: 9780307271020

Guardian (UK)4 of 5 Stars"[W]hat most binds these stories [is] the conflict between what music promises and what life delivers. … Each of these stories is heartbreaking in its own way, but some have moments of great comedy, and they all require a level of attention that, typically, Ishiguro’s writing rewards."Tom Fleming

Independent (UK)4 of 5 Stars"Nocturnes pays no more than peppercorn rent to the traditional story cycle in the same way that When We Were Orphans was barely a detective yarn. … Ultimately this is a lovely, clever book about the passage of time and the soaring notes that make its journey worthwhile."Christian House

Los Angeles Times4 of 5 Stars"Part of what makes Ishiguro so refreshing is that he leaves the epiphanies to the reader. We emerge feeling as if we have grasped insights that elude the characters, as if we have glimpsed the shapes of their lives and perhaps something significant about life itself."Troy Jollimore

Telegraph (UK)3.5 of 5 Stars"Kazuo Ishiguro’s reticence and intense, inward, self-containment are conspicuous in these stories. … One turns away, thinking the narratives one-note. Yet they resonate long after the book is set aside."Jane Shilling

Entertainment Weekly3 of 5 Stars"After so many masterful novels full of wistfulness, remorse, and dread—The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go being personal favorites—he has set the bar so high that you can’t help but be underwhelmed by these five tales, most of which revolve around some naive, music-loving man getting an unpleasant glimpse into somebody else’s relationship."Jeff Giles

Miami Herald2.5 of 5 Stars"Unfortunately, the stories can’t quite match the dazzling bravado of Ishiguro’s novels. … But as a suite of work, they’re more pop hit—engaging but inconsequential—than masterpiece."Connie Ogle

Spectator (UK)2 of 5 Stars"There are disappointingly few highlights. … Part of the problem is that each of the stories is narrated in the first person by an almost willfully uninteresting character; Ishiguro achieves verisimilitude at a high price, because the prose seems underwritten, at times even mundane."Simon Baker

Critical Summary

Ishiguro blends musical concepts with their literary counterparts in his latest work, and Nocturnes has the ephemeral quality of a song cycle with recurring themes and motifs developed in different prose keys. Though critics admired Ishiguro’s lovely writing, "unassuming to the point of near-invisibility, like a lake whose still surface belies the turbulent currents beneath" (Los Angeles Times), they took issue with his characters—insubstantial and unconvincing when compared to the haunting creations found in his novels—and his implausible plot developments. Perhaps Entertainment Weekly summed it up best by stating that Nocturnes, by any other writer, would be praiseworthy; by a celebrated author like Ishiguro, it can best be likened to a minor work from a master composer.